The Main School at Sussex independent school Sompting Abbotts
The Main School (Upper Prep Department) at West Sussex prep school Sompting Abbotts is where your child moves to for the next step in his or her schooling. The children leave the Old Stables building for classrooms in the Main House. From here on, independence in learning, self-discipline and taking responsibility become key, alongside a sense of fun, exploration and discovery.
The next stage in your child's education
Small class sizes are a key strength for us, with most classes having a maximum of 15 children. In the Prep, all children still have a form teacher but now most individual subjects are taught by specialist teachers. In the Prep (Years 3 to 8), our scheme of work is based upon the National Curriculum but extends far beyond it in preparing children for the Public School Common Entrance and Scholarship Examinations. All pupils sit Common Entrance and pupils’ scholarships success across all disciplines is strong.
Every classroom has a Smart Board and children make use of the Main Library and the well-equipped ICT Suite, Language and Science Labs. We provide pupils with a curriculum that allows them to achieve outstanding examination results. But there's plenty of fun too. Our teaching is performed using a progressive approach to inspire an excitement of learning and to prepare children for their modern careers and life ahead.
Pro-active pastoral care
Your child's progress is tracked carefully through internal and external assessments, observation and nurturing interaction. We celebrate every child's success – whether it's academic, sporting, creative, fantastic conduct or extraordinary effort. Pastoral care in the Main School remains a priority for us and we encourage children and parents to share life events and problems. Good manners, respect and courtesy are constants.
Home study is more formal at this stage and set daily. Some pupils take advantage of our after-school prep facility, available until 6pm. The free wraparound care for Years 3-8 is similar to that for our youngest pupils but with an earlier drop-off facility from 7.30am and Late Room/Prep supervision until 6pm.
“Boys and girls in Year 8 successfully move on to other independent schools which set demanding entrance requirements and each year a number are awarded scholarships for academic achievement as well as for art, drama and music. A number of pupils each take examinations in speech and drama, and in music, achieving high marks.”
What child doesn’t love to collect handfuls of glossy brown conkers? At Sompting Abbotts, they don't just fill their pockets — even socks become makeshift pouches. And so, at this time of the year, we send the children out into our school grounds to look for shiny conkers (not that they need any persuading).